The World Cup tends to be the biggest sports event in nearly ever place except for in the United States. Recently I had some friends from the U.S. commenting that they just don't understand what the big deal was about the World Cup. Well, spend a little time in Costa Rica and you'll understand a bit more. You see for many counties soccer is a symbolic and unifying game that brings people together for incredible and unmatched patriotic pride. I grew up a diehard sports fans for all of my Seattle teams, but have never witnessed anything like the madness here in Costa Rica after the past week upset Uruguay and Italy in their first two World Cup games to advance to second round and top 16. These games allow all Costa Ricans, mothers, grandfathers, children, all to come together and all root not just for their team, but for their country. Celebration is composed of waving their national flag, singing their anthem and pridefully boasting about their great country. Sure you might see some cities or states in the US celebrate when their local teams win a championship, but you'll never see such patriotic pride as I've just seen the last week. Unfortunately if you live in the U.S. you might not get to experience what I get to here in Costa Rica, but I encourage you to watch a game or two, cheer on Costa Rica for the rest of this ride, and hopefully celebrate with the rest of all of us in Costa Rica. For some great photos click here

Back in February of 2012 during the Annual General Assembly of Vista Las Palmas owners, and while studying budgets of past and projected years, one line item stood out above the rest.While reviewing the cost of electricity all owners were concerned that there seemed to be a continuous increase in the cost of common area electricity. Noticing an average increase of 10% per year over the past 10 years, and seeing no reason for this trend not to continue, the VLP owners as a whole asked the Board to research alternative options.The Home Owners Board of Directors and Property Manager started to explore the use of Solar Panels. For a full year VLP had tests performed with actual solar panels and worked with informationfrom NASA to determine if there was enough of a benefit to invest in these panels. The data returned was very promising, as in Costa Rica around the area of Jaco, they found that the average amount of sun was more then sufficient to supply energy savings that outweighed over time, the initial investment. After over a year of research the VLP Board presented its findings to the General Assembly. Now that they knew solar would work, the other problem was how to pay for this significant investment. The cost was close to $300,000 and as we were an HOAwith no tangible assets, we could not obtain a loan from the bank. The only way to pay for this was for the Home Owners to make it work themselves. Determining that this investment was nota guaranteed investment the Board decided to allow owners to invest in “Tranches” of $10,000, and those who invested would receive an interest return of 7.5%/year until the project was completely paid off. The Board also had the chosen Solar Panel installation company invest $30,0000 in the project so they too would become a partner in the project, providing everyone involved an extra incentive to achieve the best possible results.As of today, Vista Las Palmas in Jaco Beach has enjoyed 5 months of Solar Power Saving; they have been able to reduce their total Common Area bill by an average of $4,500 per month and expect to have our total investment paid back in 6 - 7 years. The lifespan of the solar panels are 25 years, so the total amount to be saved over the life of the project is enormous.Living in a beach town with onlyone government owned electrical provider, andhaving a buildingto be the firstin the area to make a major investment in Solar, has started a domino effect, and as electricity rates continue to climb, the wisdom of this decision only becomes more apparent.For information on real estate sales and rentals in Vista Las Palmas contact David Karr, 8718.7216 or davidkarrcostarica@gmail.com

One of the best parts of living in Jaco Beach is the number of different restaurants we have to choose from. Japanese, Italian, Argentinan, Mexican, fresh seafood, there are plenty of options to and lots of great restaurans. Since it’s now football season though I thought I’d highlight...............